Automatic boiler-feeding device.



No. 154 833.- Patented Jan. 23,1900 .1. H. BULLARD. AUTOMATIC BOILER FEEDING DEViCE.

(Application filed Feb. 3, 1899.)

{No model.)

- NITED STAT-Es PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES BULLARD, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

AUTOMATICBOILER-FEEDING DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 641,833, dated January 23, 1900.

Application filed February 3, 1899. Serial No. 704,394. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JAMES H. BULLARD, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Automatic Boiler-Feeding Devices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to automatic boilerfeeding devices and particularly to means located outside of the boiler and connected with the valve located in the feed-pipe of a boiler and actuated by the rise and fall of the water-level in said boiler to open and close said valve.

The object of the invention is to produce a construction of this kind which shall be sure and powerfnl'in its operation and which can be applied at a low cost.

The invention consists in the construction hereinafterdescribed, and pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings forming part of this specification, Figure 1 illustrates one end of a boiler having this invention applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a section on line 2 2, Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a section on line 3 3, Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a View showing a modified construction of a part of the invention.

Referring to the drawings, 3 indicates a boiler of any type having connected therewith, in the usual manner, a pipe 4, through which water is supplied to said boiler. Said pipe may be connected with any suitable pump or gravity system of water-supply capable of forcing water into the boiler against the pressure carried therein. In said pipe 4 is the valve 5, which controls the passage therethrough, and between said valve and the boiler a check-valve is located,adapted to close by the boiler-pressure. Between said check- Valve and the boiler a vertical branch pipe 6 is connected with the pipe 4 and is provided with a valve 7. At a point approximately in the plane of the normal water-level in the boiler this branch pipe 6 turns to a position at right angles to the vertical and enters a chamber 8 in the body of a cylinder 9, within which is a piston-head 10, whose rod 12 enters the body of the valve 5 through a stuffingbox thereon common to all valves. The said chamber 8 is, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, prefer= ably cast in the upper end of the cylinder 9 and is provided with a transversely-located partition 13, extending from near the entrance of the pipe 6 therein nearly across said chamber. Another pipe 14 enters said chamber near said branch pipe 6, said partition 13 lying between the orifices of said two pipes and making said chamber 8 an enlarged continua tion of an open passage from one of said pipes to the other. Said pipe 14 extends horizontally toward said boiler parallel with the hori zontal part of said pipe 6, and thus, also, in

the plane of the water-level of the boiler, and

then turns upward and is connected with the steam-space in the upper end of said boiler. A valve 15 is located in this pipe. It is thus seen that a continuous passage exists from the boiler through the pipe 4, the pipe 6, the chamber 8, and the pipe 14 to the boiler again and that one end of said passage is located below the water-line of the boiler and the other above it, and consequently the level of water standing in the branch pipe 6 or the chamber 8 would coincide with the water-levelin the boiler, and variations insaid water-level would effect similar variations in said passage. Hence when water is pumped or otherwise passed into the boiler it will with equal facility pass into the vertical pipe '6, and as the normal water-level in the boiler is substantially in the plane of the horizontal position of the pipe 6 it follows that the chamber 8 will be occupied under such. conditions by relatively cold water from the pipe 4 when the water in the boiler is at its normal level. As the water-level in the boiler begins to lower the water will at the same time begin to pass out from the chamber 8 and steam from pipe 14 will occupy the space recently occupied by the water, thus efiecting a change of many degrees in the temperature of the said chamber and the walls thereof. The piston-head 10 is cup-shaped and is adapted to contain a liquid 16, easily expansible under heat and reversely contractible under opposite conditions of temperature, and said liquid when contracted should completely fill the space between the piston-head and the wall forming the-bottom of the chamber 8. Thus when steam enters said chamber said liquid will expand sufficiently to move the piston and its rod against the tension of the spring 17 located on said piston-rod between the under side of the piston-head and the cap which closes the lower end of said cylinder and through which said rod passes. As has been said, the piston-rod 12 enters the body of the valve 5 and has secured to its end within said valve the valve-disk 18. Hence any movement of the piston-rod 12 endwise, caused by the expansion of the liquid within said cylinder, will force said valve-disk away from its seat and open a passage through said valve, and reversely the contraction of said liquid 16 will allow the spring 17 to close said valve. It is thus apparent that the occupation of the chamber 8 by a fluid body of a relatively low orhigh temperature will, by the action of said temperature upon the expansible and contractible liquid within the cylinder 9, cause the valve-disk 18 to be moved toward or from its seat, and thus control the supply of water for said boiler. It is further apparent that the entrance of a fluid body of either a low or high temperature is determined exclusively by the height of the water-level in the boiler, and thus variations of the said water-level will cause the actuation of the valve 5 in the feed-Water pipe to supply to the boiler water that it needs or to cut off that supply when a sufficient quantity has been forced into the boiler to raise the water to its normal level.

For the purpose of keeping a proper supply of liquid 16 in the cylinderahole 19 is bored through the upper end of the cylinder and a pipe 20 screwed therein, which is provided with a suitable valve, whereby liquid may be introduced into said cylinder.

In Fig. 4 is shown a vertical and cross-sectional view of a construction which may be used in lieu of the cylinder 9, and it is, in effect and in function, practically the same as a cylinder, as applied to this construction, and is thought to be well within the scope of the invention. Said alternate construction consists in a metal diaphragm 21, forming a transverse partition in a metal case 22, and on one side of said diaphragm a'passage 23 is provided, the opposite ends of which communicate with the boiler above and below the water-level therein, which passage is in all respects similar to that shown in Fig. 2, formed by the partition which divides the chamber 8 into two parts. That part of the metal case 22 through which said passage runs is filled completely with a suitable expansible fluid, and the alternate occupation of said passage 23 by cold water and steam will cause the expansion and contraction of said fluid and the consequent distention and retraction of said diaphragm, whereby the rod 24 is made to move a valve-disk toward or from its seat in the same manner as the piston in the cylinder 9 actuates said valve-disk. The diaphragm 21 may be concentrically corrugated, as shown in Fig. 4, to render it more susceptible to distention and to give it a greater range of movement. Means may be provided, as in the cylinder 9, for maintaining aproper supply of liquid in that part of the case 22 in which the passage 23 is located, and a suitable spring 25 may be applied to said rod between the under side of the diaphragm and the interior of the lower half of the case 22 to eifect the sure return of the diaphragm to normal position after its distention by the expansion of said liquid in the case above it.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. The combination with a boiler having a suitable water-supply pipe and a valve therein, of an open passage between said supplypipe and the steam-space in said boiler, a cylindrical casing, a movable partition therein, an expansible liquid confined between one side of said partition and one end of said casing, a rod bearing against said partition and connected with said valve, and a chamber on said casing and forming a part of said passage lying in the plane of the normal waterlevel of the boiler, which chamber is adapted to receive alternately, cold Water and steam therein by the rise and fall of the water-level in the boiler, whereby said valve may be actuated by the expansion and contraction of the liquid within said casing, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination with a boiler having a suitable water-supply pipe and a valve therein, of an open passage between said supplypipe and the steam-space in said boiler, a cylinder, a piston-head therein, an expansible liquid confined between one side of the pistonhead of said cylinder and one end of the latter, a piston-rod connected with said piston and with said valve, and a chamber on said cylinder and constituting a part of said passage lying in the plane of the normal waterlevel of said boiler, which chamber is adapted to receive, alternately, cold water and steam therein by the rise and fall of the water-level in said boiler, and whereby said valve may be operated by the expansion and contraction of said liquid within said cylinder, substantially as described.

JAMES H. BULLARD.

Witnesses:

H. A. CHAPIN, K. I. CLEMoNs. 

